No Place Like Home
by Tabbyluna
Summary: Star Strike and Enigma have a little chat about their homes. Their homes before Skylands, that is.


No Place Like Home

'Hey, Star Strike, I was wondering if you had any- what in Skylands are you doing?!'

Enigma found the hooded alien perched on her bedroom window. She was visibly calm, sitting peacefully and looking up at the sky. In one hand she held a silver telescope, and the other gripped onto the ledge.

Star Strike turned to look at him. 'Oh, hey Enigma.' she levitated off the window and placed the silver telescope down. 'What is it that you wanted?'

'Well, I came in here to ask if you had any duct tape,' began Enigma 'but now, I wonder what is it you were doing on your window.'

'Oh,' Star Strike grabbed her telescope,'I was actually trying to see if I could identify my home planet. It has to be somewhere out there.'

Enigma peered out the window. Star Strike's room faced a large, clear field, untouched by any obstructions. There was not a building or a tree in sight, and there were no artificial lights anywhere. Thus, the sky was dotted with millions of stars. He wondered how anyone was able to tell them apart. To him, they all looked the same. Some shone slightly brighter than others, but he could barely tell one from the others. 'Well, all the best in finding your home planet.' He turned towards Star Strike, who was digging through her desk drawer.

'Found it! Did you say something?' she handed him a roll of duct tape.

'I said that I wished you the best in finding your home planet.'

'Oh, well, thanks.'

Enigma's eyes fell on the silver telescope again. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was decorated with tiny markings. He knew that he had not been in Skylands for the longest time, but those markings looked, well, completely alien from anything he had ever seen here. 'Star Strike, out of curiosity, where did you get that telescope? I do not think I have seen anything like that before.'

Star Strike glanced down at her telescope. 'Oh, this? This was my mother's. She gave it to me years ago, when I was a little girl.' she looked down at the trinket. 'She said that this telescope is enchanted. That somehow, it would always help the user find whatever he or she is looking for. We used to use this to track down the family keys all the time.' She chuckled at those memories. Good times.

Enigma looked out the window again. He still wondered what the difference was with all those stars. He wished Star Strike the best with finding her home planet and her family, but he really does not know how in Skylands she would find it. He had to ask her about it.

'Another question Star Strike. How do you identify the stars? They all look rather similar from over here.'

'Well,' She began,' that is what the telescope helps you to do. It magnifies distant objects, such as the stars, for us to see what they would look like at a closer distance. The stars look different if you look through these.'

'Hmm... I see.' He walked closer to the window, still looking at the glowing orbs in the dark sky. So they only looked like that from a distance. 'I hope you will excuse my lack of knowledge about stars.I had never seen anything like these in the place between the worlds. When night fell, it was always pure darkness. Everyone usually fell asleep immediately once daylight dimmed. That was our custom, people never really stayed up late.'

'Oh, I see. So why are you up so late tonight then, Enigma?' asked Star Strike.

'Obviously, because I needed the duct tape.' Enigma replied.

'I see.' It was probably pointless to probe him into revealing more about why he needed the duct tape. Considering that that was his response, there was probably a reason he needed that duct tape which he did not wish to share. She decided to change the subject.

'Do you ever miss your home and your family? I know that home is where the heart is and the Skylanders are our new family in Skylands, but do you miss your old home and your family back there?' Asked Star Strike. She was gazing out the window too, looking at the stars with fondness. Fondness, and a tinge of sadness.

Enigma bowed his head. 'I understand what you mean. Sometimes I do miss my home and my family. I would love to return back someday.' He looked up again, gazing up at the night sky. 'But what had to be done had to be done. I love my world and my family dearly. It was for the best that The Darkness did not come to corrupt it.'

Star Strike grew curious. 'So, what was your world like? Or you could tell me how it came to be "between the worlds".'

He sighed. 'Well, since you asked, I'll tell you about both of those.' he began his story. 'Millions of years ago, back when all worlds were new, there were a group of shadow people who practiced the mystical arts. No one remembers what world these people originally came from,but the other inhabitants of the world did not like them. These people were quiet and reclusive, they were mysterious and reserved. That world, at least back then, was full of bright and joyful spirits. There was a strict rule among those spirits that there was to be no sadness, anger, fear or darkness displayed outwardly.

'However, these dark spell-casters were rather scary looking, at least to the bright spirits. Their faces were invisible, they practiced shadow magic and were, like I said, dark and reclusive. So the spirits were, naturally, suspicious towards these shadow people. For the longest time, the light spirits kept out of the shadow people's way. The shadow people never really minded, as they were more concerned with practicing their magic and they rather enjoyed the peace and quiet. They took to living in cave and formed societies there.

'But one day, a brave-but rather reckless-light spirit, named Sonnenbruch, decided to see what hid in those caves. He was the chief's son, and was specifically told he must never go down there. But he rebelled, insisting a good chief must defend his people from harm. He snuck out in the middle of the night, and went down into one of the caves. He traveled for days, using up many torches in the process. It was a long journey. But just as he was about to run out of supplies, he came across a magnificent city. Precious gemstones and tiny enchanted lights illuminated the cave, reflecting off the walls of the houses, which looked like they were made of translucent glass. And all around him, people with invisible faces and a dark demeanor went about their days. But then everyone took notice of him, as he stood out like a jewel surrounded by pebbles.

'They took Sonnenbruch to the Head Council, who were responsible for deciding his fate. To make a long story short, they decided that he must be given some supplies to make the trip back home, and never return again. As he would be disturbing the peace of the civilization. So he left and made the journey back.

'When Sonnenbruch returned from the caves and back to his village, he told his people about what a wondrous city was down there. The people of his village decided that they just had to go down there and see it for themselves. But unbeknownst to anyone, a young shadowling decided to follow Sonnenbruch back to his village and see what the outside world was like. She had turned invisible and spied on Sonnenbruch and his people. When she first heard their plan, she knew that she had to warn her people about them.

'So she ran as fast as she could, never resting even for a minute, to warn her people about the light spirits. When she returned, there was total panic as she told the shadow people the story, nobody knew what to do. But she had an idea. She told the shadow people that it would take several days for the light spirits to find their city. So they should spend that time practicing all their magic and become strong enough to turn their city temporarily invisible.

'And practice they did. Everyone in the city for the next few days toiled all night and all day, practicing their invisibility magic. The strongest sorcerers helped the weakest citizens to practice. Eventually, everyone was able to generate enough magic for the entire city to seemingly disappear.

'The day finally came, when the watchmen they had stationed signaled the citizens that they had heard loud footsteps coming. They ran into the city, alerting the citizens to gather at the city center. In a few moments, everyone has assembled there. The Head Council lead the others, as they all cast a spell of invisibility over the city and themselves. And amazingly, the plan worked. But almost a little too well.

'For you see, once they had managed to cast the spell, they saw the chief and his people come. Their looks of confusion were the last things the shadow people saw before everything went dark. In surprise at the sudden loss of light, everyone was told to stop casting the spell.

'They sent scouts to discover this new world they were in. After poring together the data they had gathered, they concluded that they were all trapped in a world between the worlds. The Head Council told everyone not to panic, and that they would adapt to this new, apparently uninhabited world. The shadow people did, and that was how my world came to be.'

Star Strike looked at the Shadow person with awe. 'Wow, so that was how your people got to be in "a place between worlds" huh? That was really interesting.'

Enigma smirked, 'Yes, that was what happened. my great-grandmother said that her great-grandmother's great-grandmother was right there when that happened.'

'Wow...' was her only response. For a while, there was only silence.

Then Star strike broke the silence,'Well, I don't think that the origin of my world is that dramatic, but if you would like, I could tell you about my family.'

'Sure, why not.' Was Enigma's response.

Star Strike begun. 'Well, I was born on a purple star. We never really had a name for it, but because our galaxy had many different stars of different colors, and ours was the purple one, we called it the Purple Star.' She paused. She really was not as good as Enigma when it came to storytelling. But Enigma still looked at her direction, patiently listening.

She begun again.'I was born into a family of four, consisting of my mother, my father, my older brother, and myself. Later, our family would be joined by a new member in my younger sister. We were a happy family. My mother and my father both worked as Astronomers. Well, sort of.

'They studied the dimensions, they were big believers that there were other worlds and dimensions in the universe. Most of the people on the Purple Star believed that they were the only ones there in the universe, and they laughed at their theories of other universes. But not my parents. They believed that they were not alone in this universe. And there was more than one universe out there. Of course, now I know that this is true, and when I was a child, a believed them too. But as I grew older, I began to doubt it. My friends told me that my family was peculiar. That they could no longer spend time with me, as they thought that my family's reputation would tarnish their's. I guess that was when I started becoming more skeptical. When my friends told me that the rest of my family were considered to be nut cases. I caved into peer pressure, although looking back, I wished I didn't.

'That was actually what my last conversation with a family member was about. My brother and I were talking to each other outside the house, we were playing Go Fish. I revealed to him that I was feeling skeptical about their theory that life existed outside of the Purple Star. He told me that when he was my age, he felt somewhat skeptical as well. His friends laughed at him and he understood the struggle. But at the end of the day, he decided that he didn't care about what other people think. All that matters is that the theory made sense to him. And maybe, if his friends were willing to listen, he would tell them about the theory and tell them what it was really about. Afterwards he left me to be and told me that at the end of the day, it was up to me. The minute he went inside, I felt a sharp pain through my entire body. It was the most painful thing that I had ever experienced. My vision blurred and the only thing I heard beside my screams was a rushing sound. When all that stopped, I came face to face with Kaos. And the rest is history.'

She sighed. 'I really do miss my family. I wished I had one more opportunity to talk to them, before coming to Skylands. They would have loved the fact that their theory was confirmed.'

Enigma nodded. 'I do understand what you mean. I would give anything to go back to my home.' He looked up at the night sky again. 'But I do not think I would trade any of my experiences in Skylands or with the Skylanders to do so.' It was odd, but although he felt lonely and homesick at times, he would not give up any of this. 'If it were not for the Darkness, I would have returned back to my home and family, yes, but I would have never gone on the adventures that I have gone on. I would not have the friendships that I have started in Skylands. And I would not have been able to see the stars.' Although he still could barely understand what made them different, he will admit that they were gorgeous to look at. 'I guess some things just happen for a reason.'

'Well, yeah, I kind of understand what you mean. But sometimes I still wonder if I would ever return home.' Star Strike looked out the window, at the millions of stars in the sky.

'Star Strike,' began Enigma, 'I guarantee that someday, both you and I will find our homes. We will have memories of our life and friends in Skylands, and we will indeed have many stories to tell our families someday.'

Star Strike thought about it for a while, then smiled. 'You know what, Enigma. You're right. We do have amazing memories in Skylands. We should keep our spirits up. And even if we don't make it back, at least we will live fulfilling lives here in Skylands. We protected the innocent from evil, and hopefully, our families will cope. Hopefully they will move on and feel comforted.'

Enigma smiled back. It was not noticeable, considering his face was invisible, but his tone of voice was slightly happier. 'Well, anything to help.'

'Oh, by the way, would you be willing to join me in playing some Go Fish sometime? I could teach you, and we need a fourth player. I've already asked Dino-Rang and Boomer. And they agreed to play this Saturday at six. Would you be free then?'

Enigma replied in that slightly happier tone,'Why not?' He guessed that since they have started their friendship, he might as well start spending time with her.

'Thanks for telling me your story, by the way. I did not know you were such a good story-teller.'

He grabbed the roll of duct tape. 'Well, I never really told anyone about it. Only when they ask. See you on Saturday.'

'Goodnight Enigma, meet us at Iron Jaw Gulch, okay?'

He walked out the door, 'Alright.' and he left.

Star Strike floated up onto the window and sat there. She took out her mother's telescope, and began her search for her home.

FIN

OoOoOoOoOo

 **Hey Guys, so that was my first fanfic. Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you have anything to say, please do, as long as it's civil. It can be anything, from a joke to a compliment to a constructive criticism. And please, have a good day.**

 **-Tabbyluna**


End file.
